This Airline Has A Self-Serve Beer Bar For Passengers

If you’ve ever taken a long-haul flight, you know the brief spark of excitement that flares when the food-and-drink carts come lumbering up the aisle. The promise of a little treat breaks up the monotony — and sometimes, the cart features a few boozy surprises for the grownups, too.

Brussels Airlines recently announced a new focus on Belgian beers (naturally, since you probably think of beer, fries and waffles when it comes to Belgian specialties) in its newly redesigned Airbus A330 cabins. The best part is that this includes the addition of a walk-up, self-serve bar.

Yep. You can just walk up and grab a beer out of the fridge. Surely the beer is great, but it’s also a much-needed opportunity to stretch your legs and survey the scene at 40,000 feet.

The airline didn’t specify in its press release the exact beers they’ll be offering, except to say that all eight will be Belgian and options may vary. However, according to VinePair, press photos of the bar appear to show bottles of Leffe, Hoegaarden’s Forbidden Fruit and 888 Tripel Eight.

Pretty nice, right?

There’s just one catch: You have to be flying in Brussels’ business-class cabin to access the bar. Drat.

Oh, well. Brussels isn’t the first airline to introduce a bar to its business and first-class cabins. Emirates loves showing off the fully stocked bar on its A380 aircraft. Korean Air calls its version the Celestial Bar. Virgin Atlantic’s pink-lit onboard bars look like a nightclub in the sky.

Brussels is one of the few that just lets its passengers pop up and snag a drink on their own. You’ve got to admit it’s a nice touch — almost as nice as the Belgian chocolates they serve onboard.

If all this is enough to spur you to book a flight to Belgium, the very first retrofitted A330 were set to hit the tarmac in April. More of the updated jets, which Brussels Airlines calls “a boutique hotel in the air,” will be available eventually. Specific routes weren’t announced, however.

And don’t worry. Even if you can’t swing a business class ticket, you can still join the airborne Belgian brew-fest. Passengers in all cabins on the A330 get complimentary Belgian beers on intercontinental flights.

Cheers!